Fiches Belges

As a rule in the criminal proceedings the identity of a person shall be established before performance of interrogation or other action with his/her participation such as recognition, invasive body search, searching and seizure, granting of expert opinion etc. Establishing of identity is performed both in the pre-trial and court stage of criminal proceedings – by the respective competent authority by means of an ID document of the person that contains a recent photograph, the person is asked about his/her full name, date and place of birth, citizenship, nationality, education, marital status, occupation, work place and position occupied, place of residence, record of previous convictions, as well as other circumstances that are of significance for the case. The presented information shall be recorded in a written statement drawn for the interrogation or the other procedural action with participation of the person. In case the identity of a person is not possible to be established by an ID document other methods may be used: identification on the basis of photographs, information provided by citizens with established identity, who know the person /testimony of witnesses/; recognition by relatives; DNA profiling methods; on the basis of fingerprints /dactyloscopic traces/; on the basis of data about criminal records; body marks - tattoos, scars from operations, injuries and other permanent scars or marks etc.

The Bulgarian Criminal Procedure Code The Bulgarian EIO Act Directive 2014/41/EU on EIOs The MLA Convention 2000, The Schengen Acquis - Agreement, The European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters of 1959

The competent authorities to recognize an EIO for identification of a person, issued by a competent authority of another Member State, are : 1. in the pre-trial proceedings - a prosecutor from the respective district or military-district prosecutor's office within whose judicial region the relevant investigative measure is requested to be carried out or evidence which is already in possession is requested to be transferred; 2. in the court proceedings or in case the EIO is issued by an administrative authority - the respective district or military court within whose judicial region the judicial investigation measure concerned is requested to be carried out or evidence which is already in possession is requested to be transferred. When the EIO has been sent to a body, which is not competent to recognize it, it shall send it ex officio to the respective competent authority and shall immediately notify the issuing body thereof in a manner allowing written certification of the authenticity of the receipt and of its content. The competent authorities to recognize an MLA request for identification of a person – in cases where the EU MLA Convention 2000 applies, are the respective local District/Regional Courts and District/Regional Prosecution offices – with regards of the stage of criminal proceedings and the type of crime under investigation. The competent authorities to recognize an MLA request for identification of a person– in cases where the CoE European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters applies, are as follows: -in the pre-trial proceedings - the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Bulgaria; -in the trial proceedings - the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Bulgaria.

The EIO should be sent to the competent Bulgarian authorities translated into Bulgarian or English. In case of s MLA request the latter and the enclosed documents should be accompanied by translation in Bulgarian language or in one of the official languages of the Council of Europe. With regard to the prompt administration and fulfillment of the request it is recommended the latter to be translated in Bulgarian language in advance.

No later than 30 days from the receipt of the EIO the competent authority has to take a decision for its recognition and execution. This term may be extended by not more than 30 days after indicating the reasons for the delay and after consultations between the competent authority and the issuing body. The competent authority for the execution of the EIO shall carry out actions for the investigation and other judicial investigation measures within no later than 90 days from the date of its recognition. When it is not possible to observe the above terms, the competent authority shall immediately notify the issuing body of the reasons for the delay and after conducting consultations the necessary additional time for execution of an investigation action and other judicial investigation measures shall be determined. When the issuing body has indicated in the EIO that due to the determined procedural terms, the gravity of the crime, or other especially urgent circumstances a shorter term is necessary or that investigative and other judicial investigation measures must be carried out on a specific date, the competent authority for the execution of the EIO shall comply with this requirement as far as possible. When it is not possible to comply with the term or the specific date, the competent authority shall immediately notify the issuing body of the reasons and after conducting consultations the necessary additional time for implementation of activities under investigation and other judicial investigation measures shall be determined. In case of a MLA request no specific deadlines are envisaged. The practice necessitated, when the requesting state did not fix a specific term, the requests for legal assistance to be fulfilled as soon as possible, which usually takes between two and four months according to the factual and legal complexity of the particular request.

In respect of cooperation with States outside the EU, the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters of 1959 is applicable.